Driving the Day

Good Wednesday morning. WE KNOW most people are vacationing and relaxing this week, but we have a bit of news for you. The buzz bouncing around town: the Republican-controlled House is looking to take up three bills immediately after new members are sworn in next week: THE REINS ACT, legislation that would require Congress to approve new majorregulations, MIDNIGHT RULES ACT, which allows Congress to disapprove of late-stage administration regulations en masse. Also: a RESOLUTION DISAPPROVING OF THE U.N.’S RECENT ISRAEL ACTION. This is important, because it will give President-elect Donald Trump three bills he would be likely to sign early in his presidency.

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FIRST IN POLITICO -- “[Kelly] Ward picked to lead Obama-Holder redistricting project,” by Isaac Dovere: “Barack Obama and Eric Holder’s quickly expanding Democratic joint project to tackle redistricting reform has picked a leader: Kelly Ward, fresh off four years as the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Ward is coming in initially as the interim executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee as it continues to come together, meeting with donors, hiring staff, managing groups joining as members and beginning to identify races to target as the effort gears up for action in 2017, 2018 and into 2020 — and then the actual rounds of redistricting in 2021. Many of the current maps for state legislature and House districts represent Republicans’ ‘fundamental challenge to our democracy,’ Ward said, because of how much gerrymandering they entail.” http://politi.co/2iq9oLK

-- THIS GROUP is quickly becoming a top destination for Democrats in D.C. It's expected to attract big dollars, as Democrats look to try to turn maps toward their favor across the country. Kelly’s phone will be ringing off the hook shortly.

PLAYBOOK EXCLUSIVE -- MIKE SMITH will be the DCCC’s finance director for the 2018 election cycle. From the DCCC: “Mike most recently served as Hillary Clinton’s Deputy National Finance Director in her campaign for president. As the second most senior member of Clinton’s Finance team, Mike oversaw the campaign’s National Finance Committee of nearly 5,000 high-dollar donors. Previously, Mike served at the DCCC as both the Mid-Atlantic Director and Leader Pelosi’s Finance Director.”

WHAT RON DERMER IS READING -- “Leaked Document: U.S. Colluded With Palestinians 10 Days Before UN Settlements Vote: If authentic, the document, leaked to an Egyptian website, confirms some of the claims voiced in Israel against Obama since the UN vote against the settlements last week,” by Barak Ravid, Ha’aretz’s top-notch diplomatic correspondent: “Secretary of State John Kerry and White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice told a Palestinian delegation in Washington 10 days before the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution against Israeli settlements that the U.S. would not impose a veto on such a resolution if its wording was balanced, according to a document released by an Egyptian news site. The State Department denied the contents of the document. …

“Israel’s [U.S.] ambassador, Ron Dermer, said Monday that Israel had evidence that the Obama administration was behind the wording of the resolution and had cooperated with the Palestinians behind Israel’s back. The document published on the Egyptian news site might be the evidence Israel has.” http://bit.ly/2hMJkK6

-- DAVID SANGER on A3 of the NYT: “John Kerry, in a Final, Pointed Plea, Will Outline a Vision of Mideast Peace”: “In a last-chance effort to shape the outlines of a Middle East peace deal, Secretary of State John Kerry is to outline in a speech on Wednesday the Obama administration’s vision of a final Israeli-Palestinian accord based on bitter lessons learned from an effort that collapsed in 2014. A senior State Department official said that Mr. Kerry, who will be out of office in three weeks, would use his remarks to ‘address some of the misleading critiques’ directed at the Obama administration. That was a clear reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who has charged that the United States ‘orchestrated’ a United Nations Security Council resolution last week condemning Israel’s continued building of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The United States abstained from the resolution, infuriating Mr. Netanyahu. …

“The speech, the latest salvo in a final conflict between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Obama as Donald J. Trump prepares to assume the presidency, will make the case that ‘the vote was not unprecedented’ and that Mr. Obama’s decision ‘did not blindside Israel.’ Mr. Kerry, the official said, would cite other cases in which Washington officials had allowed similar votes under previous presidents. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a coming speech, said Mr. Kerry would also argue that, with the notable exception of Israel, there was a ‘complete international consensus’ against further settlements in areas that might ultimately be the subject of negotiations.” http://nyti.ms/2hvFUiW … The speech is at 11 a.m. -- livestream www.state.gov

-- SHELDON ADELSON’S Hebrew-language “Israel Hayom” leaving no doubt where it stands today. Its front page has a photo of Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Its headline is “After pairing with the Palestinians, today Kerry’s speech.” The headline on the inside reads, “‘Kerry’s vision,’ with the Palestinians’ approval.” (Translation by Jake) http://bit.ly/2hnXIaR

-- WHAT NETANYAHU’S PARTY THINKS, per Ynet: “Internal Security Minister and Cabinet Minister Gilad Erdan said: ‘It is very unfortunate that the Obama administration, which has taken the wrong steps in the Middle East, is trying to ensure that there will be chaos even after his tenure. Kerry’s speech at the last minute combined with the Security Council resolution will ensure Palestinians will not agree to negotiations in the coming years. It’s pathetic and obsessive to introduce a formula for ending the conflict at the last moment when you couldn’t move anything in your term -- except the conference of Hamas supporters in Paris.’” http://bit.ly/2i6Jter

****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: UAE airlines bought $42 billion in US-made commercial aircraft at the 2017 Dubai Airshow. That's economic growth and jobs for Americans. The UAE-US commercial aviation relationship is a win-win deal. http://politi.co/2AtLDMj ******

COMING ATTRACTIONS -- “Obama administration is close to announcing measures to punish Russia for election interference,” by WaPo’s Ellen Nakashima: “The Obama administration is close to announcing a series of measures to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election, including economic sanctions and diplomatic censure … The administration is finalizing the details, which also are expected to include covert action that will probably involve cyber-operations ... An announcement on the public elements of the response could come as early as this week.” http://wapo.st/2igxnjp

--“‘What the Russians Did Was Utterly Unprecedented’: The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee criticizes Donald Trump, and the leader and members of his own party, for mishandling a ‘grave danger’ to the republic,” by Uri Friedman in The Atlantic: “[Rep. Adam] Schiff is refusing to move on. The future of liberal democracy in the United States and around the world is at stake, he told me, and the U.S. government is rapidly running out of time to respond to the threat (Schiff says he has no confidence that Trump will punish Russia over its role in the election). ... Schiff is also critical of Obama, whose ‘excess of caution’ ended up ‘inviting too much Russian interference.’” http://theatln.tc/2iDhqAq

CHRISTIE’S COMEBACK PLAN -- NYT A19, “‘Abandoned’ in New Jersey, Chris Christie Returns to a Changed Landscape,” by Kate Zernike and Patrick McGeehan: “Christie still believes he has a political future nationally. He wants to write a book and his friends have been telling people in New Jersey that the governor expects Mr. Trump to eventually come around to him. According to their scenario, the White House management team of Jared Kushner, Stephen K. Bannon and Reince Priebus will be a disaster and Mr. Christie will be tapped as the skilled manager, like David Gergen, the former aide to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan who swooped in to steady Bill Clinton’s administration after a raucous first year.” http://nyti.ms/2hsvIGf

HILLWATCH -- “Experts: Ryan’s livestream crackdown may be unconstitutional,” by Rachael Bade: “Paul Ryan’s new crackdown against protests on the House floor -- a direct response to the Democrats’ gun-control ‘sit-in’ last summer -- is prompting questions from experts in both parties about its constitutionality. As part of a House rules package members will vote to approve in early January, House GOP leaders want to empower the sergeant-at-arms to fine lawmakers up to $2,500 for shooting video or taking photos on the chamber floor. But experts say Ryan’s proposal may run afoul of Article 1 of the Constitution, which says ‘each House may … punish its Members for disorderly behavior.’

“For more than 200 years that has been interpreted to mean any contested sanctions against lawmakers must be approved by the full House with a floor vote, attorneys steeped in congressional legal matters say. ‘The Constitution gives the House the authority to discipline members; I have never heard of anything where an officer of the House was given that authority,’ said Mike Stern, a former lawyer for the nonpartisan House counsel’s office and the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s GOP staff. Stern, who called the proposed rule a ‘plausible Constitutional issue to raise,’ said Democrats could take the matter to court. ‘Their strongest argument would be: The House doesn’t have the authority to give these officers the power to punish us; only the power of the House can do that, and [Republicans] have short-circuited our rights by the way they’ve done it.’” http://politi.co/2i6DDK9

FUN CLICK – “The (Very Luxe) Real Estate Holdings of Trump’s Cabinet Picks,” by Beckie Strum in Mansion Global: “From Rex Tillerson to Ben Carson, a look at the opulent homes of the millionaires and billionaires serving the next president”. 9 pix on one page, which also includes the homes of Betsy DeVos, Vincent Viola, and Wilbur Rosshttp://mansion.global/2iq27f7

-- “Mystery investor plans to flip Trump’s boyhood home: In real estate jargon, the property has potential,” by Lorraine Woellert: “After languishing without a buyer for months, the five-bedroom Tudor in Jamaica Estates, New York, was sold Dec. 16 to a buyer who will auction it to the highest bidder in January, according to Paramount Realty USA. That’s a quick turnaround for any house flip, but it’s an especially bold undertaking in a time of rising mortgage rates and winter market doldrums. ... To generate interest in a sale, Paramount is circulating a copy of the president-elect’s birth certificate, which shows the home’s Wareham Place address. His father, Fred Trump, a developer, built the 2,000-square-foot house in 1940.” With a pic of the househttp://politi.co/2iq2RAy

THIS CAN’T GO WRONG, RIGHT? -- “As Home Prices Rise, Flippers Make a Comeback,” by WSJ’s Kirsten Grind and Peter Rudegeair: “The number of investors who flipped a house in the first nine months of 2016 reached the highest level since 2007. About one-third of the deals were financed with debt, a percentage not seen in eight years. Now Wall Street, which was nearly felled by real-estate forays almost a decade ago, is getting back into the action. … Investors are making an average profit of about $61,000 on each flip, up from about $19,000 at the bottom of the market in 2009. … In recent months, big banks, including Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. have started extending credit lines to companies that specialize in lending to home-flippers.” http://on.wsj.com/2hnMW4i

SPORTS BLINK -- NYT A1, “Russians No Longer Dispute Olympic Doping Operation,” by Rebecca R. Ruiz in Moscow: “Russia is for the first time conceding that its officials carried out one of the biggest conspiracies in sports history: a far-reaching doping operation that implicated scores of Russian athletes, tainting not just the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi but also the entire Olympic movement. Over several days of interviews here with The New York Times, Russian officials said they no longer disputed a damning set of facts that detailed a doping program with few, if any, historical precedents.” http://nyti.ms/2iDn3mc

Playbook Reads

PHOTO DU JOUR: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe embraces a World War II Pearl Harbor survivor after he and President Barack Obama spoke at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii on Dec. 27. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

TOP READ -- NYT A1, “Saudi Royal Family Is Still Spending in an Age of Austerity,” by Nick Kulish and Mark Mazzetti as part of the paper’s “Secrets of the Kingdom” series: “These are anxious times for the royals, led by an 80-year-old who has already had at least one stroke and is likely to be the last of six sons of the founding monarch to serve as sovereign. ... In his two-year reign, King Salman has upended the traditions of succession, creating rifts after bypassing several brothers to position the next generation — a nephew and a favorite son — in line for the throne. He has ousted prominent members of other branches of the family from governorships and top ministry jobs, consolidating power but sowing some discontent in a family that demands unity.” http://nyti.ms/2iDglMR

CYBERWARS -- “U.S. Charges Three Chinese Traders With Hacking Law Firms: Indictment says the traders bought shares of at least five publicly traded companies before announcements that the firms would be acquired,” by WSJ’s Sara Randazzo and Dave Michaels: “Three Chinese traders earned more than $4 million in illegal profits after they hacked into the computer systems of prominent U.S. law firms and stole nonpublic information on mergers and acquisitions, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Tuesday. The allegations are the latest alarm bell for law firms, which have long been considered vulnerable to cyberattacks. … The Wall Street Journal reported in March that federal investigators were probing hacks of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, which represent Wall Street banks and Fortune 500 companies in matters including lawsuits and multibillion-dollar merger negotiations. While prosecutors didn’t identify the law firms, details in the indictment closely match Weil Gotshal and Cravath.” http://on.wsj.com/2i6H57l

THE NEW GILDED AGE – “As Populists Won 2016 Ballots, World’s Richest Made $225 Billion,” by Bloomberg’s Tom Metcalf and Jack Witzig: “Triggered by disappointing economic data from China at the beginning, the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union in the middle and the election of billionaire Donald Trump at the end, the biggest fortunes on the planet whipsawed through $4.8 trillion of daily net worth gains and losses during the year, rising 9995.4 percent to $4.4 trillion by the close of trading Dec. 27, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. ... The gains were led by Warren Buffett, who added $12 billion during the year.” http://bloom.bg/2iq5dzp

INAUGURATION WATCH -- “A Rockette Speaks Out: Amidst the media storm about the pressure to perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, one dancer breaks rank for an exclusive MarieClaire.com interview about the turmoil behind the scenes,” by Kaitlin Menza: “Mary says[:] ‘The majority of us said no immediately. Then there’s the percentage that said yes, for whatever reason—whether it’s because they’re young and uninformed, or because they want the money, or because they think it’s an opportunity to move up in the company when other people turn it down.’ ... [T]o her knowledge, no women of color have signed up to perform that day. ‘It’s almost worse to have 18 pretty white girls behind this man who supports so many hate groups,’ she says. ... ‘They’re going to be branded in history as one of those women,’ Mary says. ‘How’s it going to look?’” http://bit.ly/2iq4VZu

TOP-EDS -- RICHARD TRUMKA in the NYT, “Don’t Let Trump Speak for Workers”: “Mr. Trump’s emerging cabinet and policy pronouncements seem to treat actual working people as bottom lines rather than human beings, our unions as a threat rather than a partner, and rising wages as a problem rather than the foundation of our prosperity.” http://nyti.ms/2iDrTM4

-- SEN. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.)in the NYT, “Fix Immigration. It’s What Voters Want”: “Donald J. Trump smashed many orthodoxies on his way to victory, but immigration was the defining issue separating him from his primary opponents and Hillary Clinton. President-elect Trump now has a clear mandate not only to stop illegal immigration, but also to finally cut the generation-long influx of low-skilled immigrants that undermines American workers. ... For too long, our immigration policy has skewed toward the interests of the wealthy and powerful: Employers get cheaper labor, and professionals get cheaper personal services like housekeeping. We now need an immigration policy that focuses less on the most powerful and more on everyone else.” http://nyti.ms/2iDGTxs

--“Does Trump Have a Secret Master Plan for Wilbur Ross? We need a good distressed investment guy to buy up the distressed properties of the world economy,” by Andy Kessler in the WSJ: http://on.wsj.com/2i6wn0v

SNEAK PEEK -- This coming Sunday’s NYT Mag features a big cover story by C.J. Chivers in one of his first major features since being named a writer at large for the magazine -- “The Fighter: The Marine Corps taught Sam Siatta how to shoot. The war in Afghanistan taught him how to kill. Nobody taught him how to come home”: “Since leaving the corps in 2012, Siatta had been unable to switch off the habits of war. He was hypervigilant and struggled to relax. He watched people, sizing them up and scanning for threats. In the varying situations of everyday life, he constantly repositioned himself so no one got behind him. Much of this was appropriate for combat patrols. Some of it drew from his training. All of it was mentally and emotionally exhausting, unsuited for a peaceful life. Going to a restaurant, moving through knots of people at a party, visiting the mall, finding a seat in a classroom relative to other people and windows and doors — each was a challenge requiring effort and will.” http://nyti.ms/2hMQhe4 ... The cover http://bit.ly/2hMMuh0

****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: Boeing is the preferred supplier for UAE commercial aviation requirements. Over the past 10 years, UAE customers have ordered $150 billion in Boeing planes, supporting 781,000 jobs in the US and injecting billions of dollars into the US economy. In 2016, the US had a $19 billion trade surplus with the UAE, America's third largest trade surplus globally. http://politi.co/2AtLDMj ******

JASON ZENGERLE in NY Mag, “Who Will Do What Harry Reid Did Now That Harry Reid Is Gone? Nevada’s departing senator would have fought Trump with a ruthlessness perhaps no other Democratic leader has”: “As I spoke to him in his office that afternoon, he seemed to go out of his way to insult his opponents. He sarcastically dismissed John Barrasso, a Republican senator who helped spearhead the opposition to Obamacare, as ‘Doctor Barrasso, the orthopedic surgeon from Wyoming’ — as if treating rotator-cuff injuries on the Great Plains wasn’t real medical work. Steve Bannon, Trump’s incoming senior White House adviser, was ‘a white supremacist, and if you spend a good part of your adult life being a white supremacist, it doesn’t change overnight.’ As for Trump, Reid offered a comparison: ‘As you know, I opposed a lot of stuff that [George W.] Bush did, I think he was a really bad president, but it appears the Bush family is at least in the realm of rationality.’” http://nym.ag/2iD7BGy

STRATEGERY -- “Donald Trump’s Path To 300 House Votes On Infrastructure Runs Through The Black Caucus,” by HuffPost’s Ryan Grim, Laura Barron-Lopez and Matt Fuller: “The Huffington Post spoke with 11 of the 45 members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the House of Representatives and found the vast majority skeptical but willing to work on an infrastructure bill with Trump, even if Trump cuts House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her lieutenant, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), out of the process." With a Sam Geduldig cameohttp://huff.to/2hsol1e

OOPS -- “The Worst Political Predictions of 2016: It was another rocky year for the political sages,” by Ruairi Arrieta-Kenna: “Hillary Clinton will be elected president ... Trump won’t be the Republican nominee ... There will be a viable independent or third-party candidate ... The Republican National Convention will be contested ... Women will form a firewall for Clinton against Trump ... Red states will go blue ... Hillary Clinton will defeat Bernie Sanders in the Michigan Democratic primary in a landslide ... Merrick Garland will be confirmed for the Supreme Court ... The United Kingdom won’t vote to leave the European Union.” http://politi.co/2hMRqCr

CLICKERS -- “The new household names: Garcia is now the sixth-most-common surname in the U.S.,” by Vice’s Spe Chen: “The 2010 [Census] data … show that six of the 20 most common last names in the U.S. now have Hispanic or Latino origin. In 1990, just 2 of the 20 most common names were Hispanic. ... The Hispanic population in the U.S. grew by 43 percent between 2000 and 2010. That year there were some 50.5 million Hispanic-Americans, or 16 percent of the overall population.” http://bit.ly/2hnwwJ8

REMEMBERING CARRIE FISHER -- NYT’s Dave Itzkoff: “Carrie Fisher, the actress, author and screenwriter who brought a rare combination of nerve, grit and hopefulness to her most indelible role, as Princess Leia in the ‘Star Wars’ movie franchise, died on Tuesday morning. She was 60. ... Ms. Fisher established Princess Leia as a damsel who could very much deal with her own distress, whether facing down the villainy of the dreaded Darth Vader or the romantic interests of the roguish smuggler Han Solo. ... Wielding blaster pistols, piloting futuristic vehicles and, to her occasional chagrin, wearing strange hairdos and a revealing metal bikini, she reprised the role in three more films ... [including] 32 years later [in] ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ by which time Leia had become a hard-bitten general.” http://nyti.ms/2hspkyw … The first Star Wars trailerhttp://bit.ly/2i6UaNQ

--“50 of 2017’s Most Anticipated Movies,” by The Hollywood Reporter’s Ashley Lee -- with trailershttp://bit.ly/2hnS6gz

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- “Man charged with murder in slaying of D.C. actress,” by WaPo’s Peter Hermann and Michael E. Miller: “On Christmas Day, Tricia McCauley made a pie and prepared her signature Brussels sprouts to take to a holiday party with fellow members of the District’s theater scene. At 4:30 p.m., she posted on Facebook that she was on her way. She never showed for dinner. A frantic search by friends and family, scouring city blocks, ended just after midnight Tuesday, when a man walking his dog near Dupont Circle spotted McCauley’s white two-door Scion iQ with its ‘Plant more plants’ bumper sticker. He called police. Police found the car a few minutes later parked in the 2200 block of M Street NW in West End. In a nearby CVS store, they confronted a man who had been spotted driving the Scion. A police report says that an officer asked the man for the keys and that he surrendered them. Inside the car, police found McCauley’s 5-foot-4, 115-pound body.

“McCauley had been strangled and beaten, authorities said. Police charged the man, Adrian Duane Johnson, 29, with first-degree felony murder, among other crimes. Police said they don’t know how the 46-year-old McCauley first encountered Johnson. The two were strangers, police said. Interim D.C. police chief Peter Newsham said detectives don’t know where or when McCauley was killed.” http://wapo.st/2hvXm6F

MEDIAWATCH -- “‘Profitable’ Washington Post adding more than five dozen journalists,” by Ken Doctor: “Twenty-sixteen was the year The Washington Post came of age -- again. ... Now, come 2017, the Post seems to be doing something unique in daily journalism: It is adding journalists early in the year. … [C]ontent will be bolstered by the new quicker-response investigative team, more breaking news and positions added in both video and audio/podcast (built on the success of its 44-episode presidential podcast series). Then, the Post — which now sends out 62 different newsletters to its readers — will increase its newsletter and alerts staff.” http://politi.co/2iDpelF

--HOWARD WOLFSON in The Daily Beast, “The Media Blew Overall, Yes, But There Were Noteworthy Exceptions, And Here They Are”: “Alec MacGillis and Chris Arnade looked at the campaign from the outside in, spent considerable time with working class voters in the Midwest and asked why they voted for Trump. Their answers defy simple characterizations. Glenn Thrush examined the campaign from the inside out in a deeply sourced piece. Joshua Green and Sasha Issenberg talked with the Trump data nerds, and Edward-Isaac Dovere looked at the Clinton campaign’s mistakes in Michigan.” http://thebea.st/2iDrQ2I

--“Real Clear Education Editors Leaving to Bring Aggregation to The 74,” by EdWeek’s Mark Walsh: “The two top editors of Real Clear Education ... are moving to The 74, the education news website partly funded by the family foundation of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for U.S. secretary of education.Andrew J. Rotherham, who served as a White House domestic-policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, launched Real Clear Education in 2014 ...Emmeline Zhao, a former editor at the Huffington Post, has been Real Clear Education’s editor since its inception.” http://bit.ly/2hvQfLG

--LARA JAKES to the NYT as a new night editor – Per a staff memo from NYT D.C. bureau chief Elisabeth Bumiller: “Lara was most recently managing editor of news for Foreign Policy magazine … Before that, she worked as a reporter at The Associated Press for more than 12 years, including three in Baghdad, where she served as bureau chief in 2012. ... Lara starts on Jan. 17.”

Playbookers

SPOTTED: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser dining last night with former Mayor Adrian Fenty and four others at Bourbon Steak in the Four Seasons in Georgetown ... Hamilton Place Strategies’ Tucker Warren (a Gore alum) walking around San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with his family last night

TRANSITIONS --JUAN RODRIGUEZ, Sen.-elect Kamala Harris’s campaign manager, will become a partner at SCN Strategies as the powerhouse consultancy expands from San Francisco into Los Angeles. Rodriguez will establish the L.A. office for the firm, which has worked on campaigns for Gov. Jerry Brown, Harris and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Consultants around the state are positioning for a wide-open gubernatorial race in 2018. Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor who is running for governor in 2018, is trying to make inroads in L.A. and Southern California. … LIZ BARTOLOMEO, the managing director for communications at the Center for American Progress, is leaving CAP to join Rep. Ro Khanna’s office as communications director and senior adviser.

PLAYBOOKERS’ NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS:Laura DeMaria, executive director of the National Association for County Community and Economic Development: “It’s the same as 2016’s: pet more dogs.” ... Bill Arnone, CEO of the National Academy of Social Insurance: “To help promote a renewed respect for evidence and facts – and accept those that might not be in sync with my own world view.” ... Giovanni Hashimoto: “Find time for more recreational reading and travel to 12 new countries.” ... Mary Elizabeth Russell: “Allocate a limited amount of time per day to social media so it does not demand too much time”.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Susanna Quinn, founder of on-demand fitness and beauty service Veluxe, celebrating by “Weather permitting, hiking the Billy Goat trail with family and then, dinner with my handsome trophy husband, Jack Quinn. Joining us will be my mentor, Allen Gannett and his husband, Trever Faden and my best guy friend, Matt Dornic” – read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2i6Ghzt

****** A message from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates: UAE airlines have received or have on order more than 800 Boeing aircraft. Emirates is the world's largest operator of Boeing 777s and has 40 Boeing 787-10s currently on order. Flydubai operates an all-Boeing fleet of planes and has a total of 361 Boeing 737s on order. Etihad operates 24 Boeing 777s with 25 more on order, and has an additional $8.7 billion order for Boeing 787-10s. UAE airlines now serve 11 US gateway cities from Dubai and Abu Dhabi with more than 250 weekly nonstop flights. http://politi.co/2AtLDMj ******

About The Author

Jake Sherman is a senior writer for POLITICO and co-author of POLITICO’s Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Jake is the top congressional reporter on Capitol Hill and has built a career on landing hard-to-get scoops

Since 2009, Jake has chronicled all of the major legislative battles on Capitol Hill, and has also traveled the country to cover the battle for control of Congress.

Jake takes readers inside the rooms where decisions are made. His high-impact reporting resulted in the resignation of Aaron Schock.

Before landing at POLITICO, Jake worked in the Washington bureaus of The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He also interned on the metro desk of The Journal News (N.Y.) and, during high school, worked on the sports desk of the Stamford Advocate (Conn.).

Jake is a Connecticut native, and a graduate of The George Washington University — where he edited The GW Hatchet — and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Jake lives in Washington with his wife Irene, and listens to an unhealthy amount of Grateful Dead and Phish.

About The Author

Anna Palmer is a senior Washington correspondent for POLITICO and co-author of POLITICO’s Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Anna covers the world of Congress and politics, and has successfully chronicled the business of Washington insiders for years. Her stories take readers behind the scenes for the biggest fights in Washington as well as the 2016 election.

Prior to becoming POLITICO’s senior Washington correspondent, Anna was the co-author of the daily newsletter, POLITICO Influence, considered a must-read on K Street.

Anna previously covered House leadership and lobbying as a staff writer for Roll Call. She got her start in Washington journalism as a lobbying business reporter for the industry newsletter Influence. She has also worked at Legal Times, where she covered the intersection of money and politics for the legal and lobbying industry, first as a staff writer and then as an editor.

A native of North Dakota, Anna is a graduate of St. Olaf College, where she was executive editor of the weekly campus newspaper, the Manitou Messenger. She lives in Washington, D.C.

About The Author

Daniel Lippman is a reporter for POLITICO and a co-author of POLITICO's Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Before joining POLITICO, he was a fellow covering environmental news for E&E Publishing and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York. He has also interned for McClatchy Newspapers and Reuters. During a stint freelancing in 2013, he traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border to cover the impact of the Syrian civil war for The Huffington Post and CNN.com.

He graduated from The Hotchkiss School in 2008 and from The George Washington University in 2012. Daniel hails from the Berkshires in western Massachusetts and enjoys playing tennis, seeing movies and trying out new restaurants in his free time.